


An Unpleasant Discovery

by Sunja



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Identity Reveal, Mevolent's War, Sad Ending, The Dead Men (Skulduggery Pleasant)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27260539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunja/pseuds/Sunja
Summary: Dexter gets captured and brought to Lord Vile. It does not end well.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	An Unpleasant Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> I love Dexter, therefore he must suffer.

Dexter coughed and winced. That hurt. In fact, everything hurt. It had been one of those shitshows again. A battle they hadn’t been prepared for. 

Dexter and the rest of the Dead Men had been on leave. Or at least, the closest to leave they ever got in this war. Saracen had disappeared with a young woman early on in the evening, Ghastly, Erskine and Hopeless had gone of back to their current headquarters to brood over the war effort and where Skulduggery could possibly have gone, Anton and Larrikin had been sitting by a campfire the last that Dex had seen them. Skulduggery had been missing for over two years now and while the team was now somewhat used to it, Dex still missed his leadership when they were out in the field and he knew the others felt the same. He had left a space that no one of them could really fill. 

Dexter had left the campfire to go find himself some food, when he had suddenly heard the screams. So he had dropped the food, grabbed his sword and jumped into battle. 

It hadn’t gone well. 

Somehow, Mevolent’s forces had found their secret camp. They had surrounded it and attacked. Dexter had been fighting on the north side, he hadn’t seen the others throughout the whole fight, but he figured they were fighting somewhere else. He’d have gone looking for them, but he would have left far too big a hole in their defenses. 

And so Dex had fought on. 

The teleporters had arrived at some point and started evacuating, but Dex had barely noticed. He had just heard the panicked screams from inside the camp become less and less. He thought it wouldn’t be long until the teleporters would come pick up the fighters as well. 

But then Vile had arrived. 

Off all the horrible people and powerful sorcerers in Mevolent’s army, Vile was the one they all feared the most. And that even though he’d only been around for two years - the blink of an eye in a mage’s mind. 

Vile had started tearing through Dex’s comrades on his right and he had decided that today would not be the day he died. And so Dex had run back into camp, hoping to find one of his friends, someone to warn, or a teleporter to get away. 

And that’s how it happened, that he had been the only idiot standing in an evacuated camp, while the fighters were quickly being teleported away. 

And then he’d been the only one left. 

Once the sound of fighting had stopped and Dex still stood alone between the tents he realized how badly he had fucked up. He hoped that Saracen would know where he was and they’d come get him, but since Saracen still didn’t know where Skulduggery was he figured the chances were slim. 

So Dex had hidden in a shadow and waited until Mevolent’s men strode into camp. Once he thought they were all looting the main tent for information and the others for weapons, he snuck on. If he made it into the forest without anyone noticing, he might make it. 

If he was spotted, he was a dead man. Literally this time. Vile was here and one of the few things Dexter knew about him was that he was absolutely unstoppable. 

Dex made it almost out of camp before he saw a guard. Luckily, the guard hadn’t seen him yet, so Dexter snuck up behind him and jammed a knife in his throat. He covered the man’s mouth so he couldn’t scream and lowered him silently to the ground. He’d been perfectly soundless. 

It didn’t matter. 

That was the thing about really fucking powerful necromancers. They felt death. Dexter should have known, really, but it’s not like he had any necromancer friends. 

Within moments he heard shouts of alarm and the sound of people running. 

“Fuck.”, muttered Dex and took off sprinting toward the woods. 

He did not get far. 

An energy beam knocked him off his feet, Dexter rolled and shot back a stronger one. The soldier who had thrown the beam went down, but Dex had lost valuable time. Within moments he was surrounded. He knew he was fucked either way, so he decided to go down fighting. And Vile wasn’t here yet, so at least the odds weren’t completely against him. 

Well. 

The odds of fighting one against fifteen could also be considered completely against him. 

Dex attacked the first guy who was too slow to dodge the energy beam to the face. The second guy _was_ fast enough to block Dexter’s sword and while Dexter could most likely have taken him in a fair fight, this was not that. Dex swung his sword again and something hit him in the back. He stumbled, shot an energy beam that hit something, Dex couldn’t really see what, then someone punched him in the face. Dexter spun, managed to stay on his feet, raised his fist (where had his sword gone?), punched someone, and then got kneed in the ribs. He felt something crack and yelped, but then something sharp pierced his shoulder and he was distracted by the new pain. He almost didn’t notice the next few punches to the gut and face. 

When the daze receded far enough that Dexter could see and breathe again, he was lying on the ground and someone was just snapping shackles around his wrists. Instantly Dexter felt his magic fade. 

This was bad. Dexter really hadn’t wanted to be taken alive. Being killed would have been bad enough, but he really could have done without the torture that was sure to follow. 

The Dead Men really weren’t prepared to have two members out of commission. They only had one back-up and Larrikin was already on call currently. How inconvenient. Dex chuckled, but ended up coughing and in pain. 

Two of the mages pulled him up. “Do we kill him?”, asked one. 

“Are you crazy?!”, a second one answered. “This guy is one of the Dead Men! Bring him to Lord Vile!”

Dex tried to get his feet under him, but his knees were too wobbly. They were back in the camp and steering towards the command tent when Dex’s legs felt strong enough for careful steps again. It didn’t do him any good, as he was dragged through the opening of the fabric and thrown on the floor. He went sprawling and when he stopped there were two black armored feet in his field of vision. Dex drew in a deep, painful breath - probably one of his last - and pushed himself to his knees. 

He forced himself to slowly look up. 

Vile’s armor was such a deep black that it was barely visible, seemingly pure darkness. It was both intricate and plain, seemed both solid and disturbingly alive, parts of it were moving and reforming before Dexter’s eyes. It was beautiful and terrifying. 

Dexter wasn’t scared of much anymore these days. But Vile… 

Vile scared him. 

But the feared General wasn’t even looking at him. He was looking behind Dexter to the two soldiers and waved them out, not with his hand, but with a shadow. A thoughtless display of power. Or maybe not so thoughtless, as the tendril wrapped itself around Dexter’s throat the moment the two soldiers had left the tent. Dexter choked and tried to pull at the tendril, but his shackled hands gripped right through it. Fucking necromancy. 

Slowly, Vile looked down at him. Dexter could tell by the tilt of the helmet. Behind the visor he could only see darkness. 

Right when Dex thought he would pass out, the tendril loosened enough for him to draw a few desperate breaths. 

“So what now?”, Dexter choked out between coughs. He wasn’t expecting an answer. At least not a verbal one. 

“Vex.”, Vile said and Dexter froze. Vile’s voice was cold and emotionless and it was distorted by his armor. Dexter couldn’t bring himself to do anything other than stare wide-eyed. He knew, logically, that Vile would know his name. He was part of the Dead Men after all, and they were quite famous these days, all of them - not only Skulduggery. 

Vile raised a hand and suddenly Dex found himself struggling again, but when Vile reached out it was to _pet his hair_. It was sudden and a little humiliating, as if Dex was some cute puppy and not a dangerous sorcerer, but it was also such a familial gesture that Dexter was completely taken aback. 

Vile ruffled Dexter’s hair for a few moments, then he drew back his hand and at its end formed a long, curved shadow blade. 

So this was how he would die. Dexter looked at the blade, and then up at Vile’s face. And in that moment the helmet’s visor evaporated and underneath Dexter could see…  
Bone. 

A white, eternally grinning skull. 

And Dexter had only ever heard of one living Skeleton. 

“No.”, Dexter immediately said. “No, no, no. You’re not him! You can’t be!”

Vile tilted his head, as if he was amused, and that movement was suddenly awfully familiar. 

It was really him. 

“What the fuck are you doing, Skulduggery?”, Dexter hissed. “We were all worried sick about you! And you what? Changed sides?”

But Vile didn’t answer and instead drew back the shadow sword. 

“Wait!”, Dexter yelled. He wasn’t ready to die now. Not with this discovery. Maybe there was some way to get Skulduggery back. Maybe something was forcing him to do this. Dexter had to be alive to find out. 

“Come on, we’re friends! You don’t want to kill me!”, he pleaded. 

Vile paused for a moment and studied him. Then he struck. 

Dexter Vex looked at the shadow sticking out of his chest and realized that the only reason Vile had shown him his face was because he was planning on killing him anyways. This secret would be lost again with his death. His friends would never know what happened to Skulduggery and Dexter would just be another friend they had lost to Vile. 

Dexter looked up at the skull above him and felt a tear roll down his cheek. 

And then, there was only darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to make this 30% set-up and 70% dramatic dialogue. And then I noticed that dialogue is pretty difficult to write when one of the characters doesn't speak. So yeah... 
> 
> Drop a comment, It'd make me happy ;)


End file.
